Station-keeping control is a critical technology for stratospheric aerostats. For those aerostats that utilise wind field environments to achieve trajectory control, the station-keeping capability of a single aerostat is inherently limited. This limitation can lead to instances of the aerostat flying outside the designated task area, thereby diminishing the effectiveness of station-keeping control. To ensure continuous monitoring of the restricted area for long endurance, dynamic adjustments and cooperative coverage among multiple aerostats are necessary. This paper introduces an optimal coverage algorithm based on Voronoi diagrams and presents a formation control method for stratospheric aerostats that employs the virtual force method and the ${A^{\rm{*}}}$ algorithm, respectively. In a real wind field environment, ten aerostats are deployed to optimally cover the restricted area. Simulation results indicate that the coverage rate of the stratospheric aerostats within the restricted area can exceed 70%, while the network connectivity rate among the aerostats can reach 80% following guidance control during return flights. Furthermore, the stratospheric aerostats that flying out of the restricted area can return through path planning and optimal coverage algorithm, and the networking connectivity rate between aerostats is higher than that using the virtual force method.

We present the first results from a new backend on the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder, the Commensal Realtime ASKAP Fast Transient COherent (CRACO) upgrade. CRACO records millisecond time resolution visibility data, and searches for dispersed fast transient signals including fast radio bursts (FRB), pulsars, and ultra-long period objects (ULPO). With the visibility data, CRACO can localise the transient events to arcsecond-level precision after the detection. Here, we describe the CRACO system and report the result from a sky survey carried out by CRACO at 110-ms resolution during its commissioning phase. During the survey, CRACO detected two FRBs (including one discovered solely with CRACO, FRB 20231027A), reported more precise localisations for four pulsars, discovered two new RRATs, and detected one known ULPO, GPM J1839 $-$10, through its sub-pulse structure. We present a sensitivity calibration of CRACO, finding that it achieves the expected sensitivity of 11.6 Jy ms to bursts of 110 ms duration or less. CRACO is currently running at a 13.8 ms time resolution and aims at a 1.7 ms time resolution before the end of 2024. The planned CRACO has an expected sensitivity of 1.5 Jy ms to bursts of 1.7 ms duration or less and can detect $10\times$ more FRBs than the current CRAFT incoherent sum system (i.e. 0.5 $-$2 localised FRBs per day), enabling us to better constrain the models for FRBs and use them as cosmological probes.

During the investigation of parasitic pathogens of Mytilus coruscus, infection of a Perkinsus-like protozoan parasite was detected by alternative Ray's Fluid Thioglycolate Medium (ARFTM). The diameter of hypnospores or prezoosporangia was 8–27 (15.6 ± 4.0, n = 111) μm. The prevalence of the Perkinsus-like species in M. coruscus was 25 and 12.5% using ARFTM and PCR, respectively. The ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 fragments amplified by PCR assay had 100% homology to that of P. beihaiensis, suggesting that the protozoan parasite was P. beihaisensis and M. coruscus was its new host in East China Sea (ECS). Histological analysis showed the presence of trophozoites of P. beihaiensis in gill, mantle and visceral mass, and the schizonts only found in visceral mass. Perkinsus beihaiensis infection led to inflammatory reaction of hemocyte and the destruction of digestive tubules in visceral mass, which had negative effect on health of the farmed M. coruscus and it deserves more attention.

Recently, Echinacea purpurea and its extracts have gained much interest due to their improvement on meat quality, but little information is available on the application of the purified Echinacea purpurea polysaccharide (4-O-methyl-glucuronoarabinoxylan, 4OMG). Thus, this trial aimed at assessing the effects of dietary supplementation of 4OMG on growth performance, thigh meat quality and small intestine development of broilers. A total of 240 1-day-old female broiler chicks were randomly distributed to four groups with three replicates of 20 within each group. Each group received either 0, 15, 20 or 25 g 4OMG/kg DM of diet. During the entire experiment, broilers had ad libitum access to water and feed, and the feed intake was recorded daily. All broilers were weighed before and end of the experiment. For each group, three pens with a total of 20 broilers were randomly selected to slaughter after 30 days. Increasing dietary supplementation of 4OMG linearly increased final live weight and daily body weight gain (P = 0.013) of broilers, Gain-to-Feed ratio (P < 0.001), muscle pH (P = 0.024) and redness (P = 0.001), but decreased drip loss (P = 0.033), shear force value (P = 0.004) and hardness (P = 0.022) of the thigh meat. Broilers fed diet with higher 4OMG had greater weight index, villus height and ratio of villus height to crypt depth in both duodenum and jejunum. These results indicated that increasing dietary supplementation of 4OMG was beneficial for growth performance, meat quality and development of the small intestine of broilers.

Flexibility is one of the important mechanical performance parameters of stent. The flexibility of tapered stents, especially self-expanding tapered stents, remains unknown. In this study, we developed a new selfexpanding tapered stent for tapered arteries and performed a numerical investigation of stent flexibility by using finite element method. The effect of stent design parameters, including taper and link space width, on stent flexibility was studied. The flexibility of the proposed stent was also compared with that of traditional cylindrical stents. Results show that the tapered stent is more flexible than the traditional cylindrical stent. Furthermore, the flexibility of the tapered stent increases with increasing stent taper and stent link space width. The increase in the stent link space width can contribute to the reduction in the peak stress. Therefore, tapered stents with high link space width will improve the stent flexibility. This work provides useful information for improvement of stent design and clinical selection.

The aim of this study was to develop and externally validate a simple-to-use nomogram for predicting the survival of hospitalised human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) patients (hospitalised person living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs)). Hospitalised PLWHAs (n = 3724) between January 2012 and December 2014 were enrolled in the training cohort. HIV-infected inpatients (n = 1987) admitted in 2015 were included as the external-validation cohort. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator method was used to perform data dimension reduction and select the optimal predictors. The nomogram incorporated 11 independent predictors, including occupation, antiretroviral therapy, pneumonia, tuberculosis, Talaromyces marneffei, hypertension, septicemia, anaemia, respiratory failure, hypoproteinemia and electrolyte disturbances. The Likelihood χ2 statistic of the model was 516.30 (P = 0.000). Integrated Brier Score was 0.076 and Brier scores of the nomogram at the 10-day and 20-day time points were 0.046 and 0.071, respectively. The area under the curves for receiver operating characteristic were 0.819 and 0.828, and precision-recall curves were 0.242 and 0.378 at two time points. Calibration plots and decision curve analysis in the two sets showed good performance and a high net benefit of nomogram. In conclusion, the nomogram developed in the current study has relatively high calibration and is clinically useful. It provides a convenient and useful tool for timely clinical decision-making and the risk management of hospitalised PLWHAs.

By integrating staggered interstate banking deregulation into a gravity model following Goetz, Laeven, and Levine (2013), (2016), we construct a time-varying, bank-specific instrument for geographic diversification and investigate its causal effect on corporate innovation via the lending channel. We find that bank geographic diversification spurs corporate innovation and enhances the economic value of innovation. We identify relaxing debt covenants and alleviating borrowers’ financial constraints as the two underlying mechanisms explaining the documented effects. Moreover, by offering lenient covenants, geographically diversified banks provide greater financial and operational flexibility to borrowing firms, enabling them to engage in future mergers and acquisitions.

In this article, Si nanoparticle (NP) films were prepared by pulsed laser ablation (PLA) in the argon atmosphere of 10 Pa at room temperature under different pulse repetition rates from 1 to 40 Hz without the baffle. Different from the conventional PLA method, the substrates were placed below and parallel to the ablated plume axis. The obtained films containing NPs were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and Raman spectrometer. The experimental results under constant laser fluence demonstrate the strong dependence of the mean size and the area number density of NPs on the repetition rate. Specifically, with the increase of pulse repetition rate, the mean size of the NPs in the film first decreases and reaches its minimum at 20 Hz, and then increases after 20 Hz, and decreases again till 40 Hz. The area number density shows the contrary trend versus mean size. The in situ diagnostic results of Langmuir probe denote the ablated Si ion density increases monotonously with the increase of repetition rate, while the temperature is almost constant. Combining with the nucleation probability, the growth/aggregation duration of NPs in the “nucleation region” and the effect of the baffle, the influence of pulse repetition rate on the formation of NPs is addressed. It is found that the repetition rate impacts the growth modes of NPs (i.e., growth and aggregation). 1–20, 20–30, and 30–40 Hz, respectively, correspond to growth-, aggregation-, and growth-controlled rate ranges without the baffle; however, 1–10, 10–20, and 20–40 Hz, respectively, correspond to growth-controlled, aggregation/growth-coexisted, and aggregation-controlled rate ranges with the baffle.

Triploid and pentaploid breeding is of great importance in agricultural production, but it is not always easy to obtain double ploidy parents. However, in fishes, chromosome ploidy is diversiform, which may provide natural parental resources for triploid and pentaploid breeding. Both tetraploid and hexaploid exist in Schizothorax fishes, which were thought to belong to different subfamilies with tetraploid Percocypris fishes in morphology, but they are sister genera in molecule. Fortunately, the pentaploid hybrid fishes have been successfully obtained by hybridization of Schizothorax wangchiachii (♀, 2n = 6X = 148) × Percocypris pingi (♂, 2n = 4X = 98). To understand the genetic and morphological difference among the hybrid fishes and their parents, four methods were used in this study: morphology, karyotype, red blood cell (RBC) DNA content determination and inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR). In morphology, the hybrid fishes were steady, and between their parents with no obvious preference. The chromosome numbers of P. pingi have been reported as 2n = 4X = 98. In this study, the karyotype of S. wangchiachii was 2n = 6X = 148 = 36m + 34sm + 12st + 66t, while that the hybrid fishes was 2n = 5X = 123 = 39m + 28sm + 5st + 51t. Similarly, the RBC DNA content of the hybrid fishes was intermediate among their parents. In ISSR, the within-group genetic diversity of hybrid fishes was higher than that of their parents. Moreover, the genetic distance of hybrid fishes between P. pingi and S.wangchiachii was closely related to that of their parental ploidy, suggesting that parental genetic material stably coexisted in the hybrid fishes. This is the first report to show a stable pentaploid F1 hybrids produced by hybridization of a hexaploid and a tetraploid in aquaculture.

The aim of the study was to investigate any association between extrauterine growth restriction (EUGR) and intestinal flora of <30-week-old preterm infants. A total of 59 preterm infants were assigned to EUGR (n=23) and non-EUGR (n=36) groups. Intestinal bacteria were compared by using high-throughput sequencing of bacterial rRNA. The total abundance of bacteria in 344 genera (7568 v. 13,760; P<0.0001) and 456 species (10,032 v. 18,240; P<0.0001) was significantly decreased in the EUGR group compared with the non-EUGR group. After application of a multivariate logistic model and adjusting for potential confounding factors, as well as false-discovery rate corrections, we found four bacterial genera with higher and one bacterial genus with lower abundance in the EUGR group compared with the control group. In addition, the EUGR group showed significantly increased abundances of six species (Streptococcus parasanguinis, Bacterium RB5FF6, two Klebsiella species and Microbacterium), but decreased frequencies of three species (one Acinetobacter species, Endosymbiont_of_Sphenophorus_lev and one Enterobacter_species) compared with the non-EUGR group. Taken together, there were significant changes in the intestinal microflora of preterm infants with EUGR compared to preterm infants without EUGR.

Alanyl-glutamine (Ala-Gln), a highly soluble and stable glutamine dipeptide, is known to improve gut integrity and function. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether dietary Ala-Gln supplementation could improve growth performance, intestinal development and digestive-absorption function in weaned piglets. A total of 100 purebred Yorkshire piglets weaned at 21 days of age were assigned randomly to four dietary treatment groups and fed a basal diet (control group) or a basal diet containing 0.15%, 0.30% and 0.45% Ala-Gln, respectively. Compared with the control group, piglets fed the Ala-Gln diets had higher average daily gain and lower feed : gain and diarrhea rate (P < 0.05). Moreover, dietary Ala-Gln supplementation increased villous height and villous height : crypt depth ratio in duodenum and jejunum (P < 0.05), as well as the activities of maltase and lysozyme in jejunum mucosa (P < 0.05). In addition, a decrease in serum diamine oxidase activity and crypt depth in duodenum and jejunum was observed in piglets fed the Ala-Gln diets (P < 0.05). Serum cytosolic phospholipase A2 (cPLA2) concentration and gene expression of cPLA2, Na+-dependent glucose transporter 1, glucose transporter 2 and peptide transporter 1 in jejunum were increased by feeding Ala-Gln diets relative to control diet (P < 0.05). These results indicated that feeding Ala-Gln diet has beneficial effects on the growth performance of weaned piglets, which associated with maintaining intestinal morphology and digestive-absorption function.

Muons produced by the Bethe–Heitler process from laser wakefield accelerated electrons interacting with high $Z$ materials have velocities close to the laser wakefield. It is possible to accelerate those muons with laser wakefield directly. Therefore for the first time we propose an all-optical ‘Generator and Booster’ scheme to accelerate the produced muons by another laser wakefield to supply a prompt, compact, low cost and controllable muon source in laser laboratories. The trapping and acceleration of muons are analyzed by one-dimensional analytic model and verified by two-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation. It is shown that muons can be trapped in a broad energy range and accelerated to higher energy than that of electrons for longer dephasing length. We further extrapolate the dependence of the maximum acceleration energy of muons with the laser wakefield relativistic factor $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}$ and the relevant initial energy $E_{0}$. It is shown that a maximum energy up to 15.2 GeV is promising with $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}=46$ and $E_{0}=1.45~\text{GeV}$ on the existing short pulse laser facilities.

Vessel flexure can be triggered naturally by surgical operation, heart pulsation and body movement. It may affect the mechanical behavior of the stent and the existence of a stent may in turn cause vessel injury. In the present study, the finite element method is employed to study the interaction between stent and vessel during vessel flexure. Two- and four-link stents made of stainless steel 316L and magnesium alloy WE43 are considered. Results indicate that longitudinal deformation of the stent can be caused by vessel flexure, and the higher levels of stress exist in the link struts. The existence of the stent could induce significant stress concentration and straightened deformation on vessel wall in the course of vessel flexure. Stents with more links or made of harder materials show greater anti-deformation capability, thus inducing a more severe stress concentration and straightened deformation on the vessel wall. The bending direction also affects the mechanical performance of the vessel-stent system. The results obtained could provide useful information for better stent designs and clinical decisions.

Monolithic large-aperture diffraction grating tiling is desired to increase the output capability of multi-kilojoule petawatt laser facilities. However, the wavefront errors of input pulse and gratings will degrade the focal spot quality and the compressibility of the output pulse. In this work, the effects of wavefront error of input pulse, deformation and wave aberration of the grating for the large-aperture tiled-grating compressor are investigated theoretically. A series of numerical simulations are presented to discuss the changing trends of focal spot energy caused by wavefront error of input pulse and obtain the error tolerance for specific goals. The influences of coating stress and the wave aberration of holographic exposure gratings on the diffraction wavefront are also discussed. Some advice is proposed for improving the performance of large-aperture tiled-grating. This work paves the way for the design of practical large-aperture tiled-grating compressor for ultrahigh intensity laser facilities in the future.